Currently, there are three basketball leagues in Taiwan including Super Basketball League, P. LEAGUE+ and T1 League. On a small island where only 23.23 million people resides, these leagues are fighting for attention to get more basketball fans to support their players and more audience to watch their games.
At the same time, basketball leagues in Taiwan are recruiting talents from all over the world. Since last year, Filipino players such as Jordan Heading, KG Cañaleta and Jason Brickman were recruited by Taichung Suns and Kaohsiung Aquas in the T1L and Ricci Rivero by Taoyuan Pauian Pilots in the PLG.
Moreover, National Basketball Association champion and eight-time All-Star Dwight Howard went to Taiwan to play for the Taiwanese team Taoyuan Leopards in the T1L in November 2022.
Unsurprisingly, the stardom of Howard has brought him vast and unprecedented public and media attention in Taiwan.
Before Howard arrived in Taiwan, 60,000 tickets of four games in which Taoyuan Leopards was the home team sold out in ten minutes. Media cared about which Taiwanese street food he likes, how many basketball shoes he brought to Taiwan, and the war of words between former NBA player Shaquille O’Neal and him. Also, Howard brought extensive media coverage for the team, and his influence on public relations is enormous when it comes to making people care about certain social issues.
Nevertheless, it seems that his teammates or other basketball players are easily overlooked because the media and the audience are paying too much attention to Howard.
The latest news regarding Howard was that a couple of basketball fans complained that they went to watch one home game of Taoyuan Leopards but got disappointed because Howard didn’t play in that game. While every player has his/her limits and it’s impossible to ask them to play all the time, it is understandable that some audience spent a considerable amount of money to see their idol, but it ended up that they could only watch him spending the game on the bench.
It is worth mentioning that the cheapest tickets for home games of Taoyuan Leopards increased from NT$100 to NT$300 after Howard joined, and people have to spend NT$5,212 to get the seats closest to the basketball court. You can also buy season tickets for the best seats, but it will cost you NT$168,000, equals to 302,000 pesos.
On the other hand, some commentators note that basketball is a team sport, so it will be essential for the team to benefit the most from Howard working closely with his teammates. If it’s only his one-man show or the whole team doesn’t work together closely, and the team doesn’t have better performance after having Howard joined, eventually people will lose interest and the “Dwight Howard Phenomenon” won’t last long.
That being said, fans still want to see more NBA star players going to Taiwan and rumor has it that Taiwanese basketball teams are talking to agents and trying to invite players such as Isaiah Thomas, Lance Stephenson, Enes Kanter Freedom and Carmelo Anthony to play for basketball leagues in Taiwan.
The recent craziness of fans and media coverage of Howard in Taiwan reminded me of the Linsanity phenomenon ten years ago. As Jeremy Lin is a Taiwanese American, it’s imaginable how proud and excited Taiwanese was when he led the New York Knicks on a seven-game winning streak and named to the Time 100 as one of the most influential people in the world in 2012.
Lin now plays for the Guangzhou Loong Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association and was fined 10,000 yuan, equals to 79,000 pesos, for his criticism of the league’s Covid-19 quarantine facilities.
It is a pity that once fan craze fades, people are paying little attention to athletes who had excellent performance no matter if it’s on basketball courts, baseball fields or athletic fields. But I do hope that more NBA or other world-class athletes will come to Asia so that fans can see them in person and teammates benefit from playing or practicing with them.